The ITF Gateway Program

Jae Hak Lee, Dongchull Jeon, Jae-Hun Park (KORDI)

Arnold Gordon, Andreas Thurnherr (LDEO)

Western tropical Pacific ITF portals

N.Pacific

S.Pacific

~zero

South China Sea portals

Luzon Strait

NOAA Makassar Mooring

• HYCOM shows net throughflow at Luzon and Mindanao/Halmahera transports vary out-of-phase with ENSO

Sibutu Passage

The ITF Gateway Program

• Objective: to monitor the contribution to the ITF of Mindanao/Halmahera and Luzon Strait;

How does leakage into the ITF depend on Mindanao Current transport?

• 2013 - 2015

Luzon Strait

Mindanao/Halmahera

Makassar Strait

GAT

EW

AY

?

The imbalance of the westward flow [A] and eastward flow [B] marks the feed of tropical Pacific Water into Makassar Strait and Maluku Sea.

A

BC C = A - B

Gray1986-1999

~1000 m

M

M

M~3000 m

~1000 m

~1000 m

~3500 m

~2500 m

~3500 m

M~1000 m

PIES CPIESM Current mooring: 2 LR ADCP, upward and downward set 500 m; current meters, 1500 m, near sea floor; microcat at sea floor [approx bottom depth shown]

On deployment: CTD/LADCP [yo-yo, tidal cycle] section. Repeat as often as possible in rotation and recovery cruises.

2 yr deployment, 1 yr rotation of all moorings [which upon study enables planning for a possible longer range plan, beyond the 2nd year]

Ships: BJ8?, KORDI?, US?, China?, ???

Luzon Strait by China [SIO: Zhu, Chen]?

TIME TABLE:

• Interact with collaborators to build a preliminary program design 2011. 3 : KORDI-NOAA meeting, Busan 2011. 9 : LDEO-KORDI meeting, NY [supported by MLTM/Korea-NOAA JPA project (PIs: Gordon,Lee,Jeon)] 2012. 2 : Ocean Science Meeting, Salt Lake City 2012. 3 : CLIVAR ITF TT meeting

• Korea component: a proposal has been submitted [Ro, Jeon & Indonesia]

• US component: NSF proposal Aug 2012 [Thurnherr, Gordon, ... ]

• Field work late 2013 to late 2015

Apr 1986 - Sep 2010 Drifter Tracks

WEAKNESS

? ? ? ?

WEAKNESS: monitoring of Halmahera Eddy flow into Halmahera Seas

However: ITF mainly North Pacific origin; Maybe at ITF TT meeting coverage of the Halmahera Seas will emerge?